Write Down Your Life

So tonight I went to my boyfriend’s cousin’s 30th birthday party. It was a lot of fun. I really do enjoy being around such wonderful people and all the little kids.

Then I realized that I don’t have any of the old traditions that my grandparents and great grandparents used to do. I don’t know when they got together with family (or IF they got together with family). I don’t know how they celebrated birthdays or the way they celebrated weddings. I don’t know any Christmas traditions or first day of school traditions. I have none of that.

So it got me thinking – maybe I should write down the little things that happen in my family life so that later, when I’m gone, my ancestors know what life was like. I mean – this is a rather amazing time. In the 20th century a lone so many things happened: 2 World Wars, The Great Depression, political scandals, genocide, civil rights movements, MAJOR advancements with technology, medical advancements, the list goes on and on.

And to think – I LIVED through some of that. Mind you, I can’t remember everything, but I can certainly remember a lot.

I remember exactly where I was when September 11th happened (My very first day at my brand new middle school – living in a town right next to the Los Angeles Harbor – the second or third largest harbor in the world and a place that many people suspected could be next). I remember exactly where I was when we entered the War on Terror in Afghanistan/Iraq (On a school field trip in Yosemite). I remember learning about Stem Cell research (My cousin with sclerodermareceived a stem cell transplant). I even remember just a few months ago – voting for the first time, in a primary, with a black man and a woman on the ballot. Wow – and I still haven’t written all of this down why?

Honestly – as morbid as it sounds we won’t all be here forever. And even if our bodies are, in this day and age where so many people come down with some form of dementia in their older years – you might not be able to say it. Yet, I am not writing this down. And a lot of these important events that I remember are going to be historical.

Someday, my grandchildren will ask me about September 11th and the war that followed, just like I asked my grandfather about World War II and his military service that followed. I want to be able to have something to say.

So I guess the bottom line of this blog, is to sit back and take a long thought about the questions you would ask your current self 10, 20, even 30 years from now. And then, I suggest you answer them, in writing.